Hope is the Thing with Feathers
“Hope is the Thing with Feathers”
In the poem “Hope is the thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson the contrast between the struggles, or darkness in life, and the hope that brings people through those struggles is the main focus. Hope is a feeling; it is a desire that drives people through even the most nightmarish situations. It is the expectation that everything will be okay, to trust there is a possibility for a brighter outcome. Having hope is to dream and have the courage to believe this outcome is possible. Hope is the faith in powers beyond one’s control. Without hope people would simply give up when faced with struggle. Dickinson awes at hope and what it can do. In the poem hope is shown as an animate thing, a bird. The imagery of hope being a bird with feathers gives the reader an image that hope can take flight (Pottebaum). This flight can take or lift a person from the burdens they face in life (Pottebaum). The world or people are projected as the soul, both as collective and as individual (Brantley). These simplistic metaphors bring this short but direct tone to a meaningful message that hope lives and abides in all of us. In later years Emily Dickinson lived a somewhat isolated existence in regards to the outside world, her immediate family were those she interacted with most (Kirk). On researching about her life, she was born in 1830. She was formally educated for the time period, even attending Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in 1847. (Kirk) During her youth she seemed to have much more social interaction, but as deaths of friends and relatives began to happen, she became more reclusive (Kirk). By the 1860s, she very rarely left Amrherst , her family home (Kirk). Miss Dickinson never married and it was suggested that she may have experienced unrequited love (Kirk). This could suggest that these events of loss and isolation helped contribute to the imagery she would later use in her writings. It is the pain and loss of those we love that strikes
In the poem “Hope is the thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson the contrast between the struggles, or darkness in life, and the hope that brings people through those struggles is the main focus. Hope is a feeling; it is a desire that drives people through even the most nightmarish situations. It is the expectation that everything will be okay, to trust there is a possibility for a brighter outcome. Having hope is to dream and have the courage to believe this outcome is possible. Hope is the faith in powers beyond one’s control. Without hope people would simply give up when faced with struggle. Dickinson awes at hope and what it can do. In the poem hope is shown as an animate thing, a bird. The imagery of hope being a bird with feathers gives the reader an image that hope can take flight (Pottebaum). This flight can take or lift a person from the burdens they face in life (Pottebaum). The world or people are projected as the soul, both as collective and as individual (Brantley). These simplistic metaphors bring this short but direct tone to a meaningful message that hope lives and abides in all of us. In later years Emily Dickinson lived a somewhat isolated existence in regards to the outside world, her immediate family were those she interacted with most (Kirk). On researching about her life, she was born in 1830. She was formally educated for the time period, even attending Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in 1847. (Kirk) During her youth she seemed to have much more social interaction, but as deaths of friends and relatives began to happen, she became more reclusive (Kirk). By the 1860s, she very rarely left Amrherst , her family home (Kirk). Miss Dickinson never married and it was suggested that she may have experienced unrequited love (Kirk). This could suggest that these events of loss and isolation helped contribute to the imagery she would later use in her writings. It is the pain and loss of those we love that strikes